My truck won’t start due to super cold weather,

I steal the old ladies hair dryer and throw it under the hood for a few hours. Boy does she get pissed...

 

Try this. Heat the motor with a torpedo heater.
Block heater stopped working.
Good thing I didn't wait to start until Monday morning at 6, when I was scheduled to leave.

 

With the new diesel we have today fuel geling is more of a problem. Then add biodiesel into the mix and not really knowing what that blend is. Truck stops don't seem to blend the fuel themselves very good.

The whole thing is kind of a mess today. When I did my training. They told us to never shut the truck off of temp went below 15F or about that temp. Then add #1 diesel if we could find it.

I remember one year trucks at Pilot in Walcott IA were gelling up at fuel island. Pilot did not treat the fuel or the tanker driver dumping the fuel forgot

Then add these new trucks that are programed not to idle unless it say below 19f but the temperature sensor is reading the wrong outside temperature because it's picking up engine heat. The old way of just letting it idle was more simple. That fixed the low battery voltage and the gelling problem most times.

 

Wow! Too cold for me my friend! The older I get the more I hate the cold weather.... And I am sure it is.

 

Below -25 our yard loader won't start even being plugged in lol.

 

Our temps have been down around -20°c (-4°f) with Wind for a while.

When I need to get a truck going that has not been plugged in, I use the heat gun and battery charger.

Warm intake air pretty much gets the engine running while the charger brings the batteries up a bit from 40% and helps to spin the starter faster.



So far this system has worked well.

I’m not sure how well this will work if temps were to plunge to -45°c (-49°f) like out west in Canada.

All I know is, warm batteries work much better. Diesel fuel is more readily able to burn with warm air blowing into the intake.

If our temps were to be as cold as out west, then likely we will switch to an engine oil that flows better at those temps to help turn that large engine over easier.

The best one is plug the truck in. Block heaters are easy to replace if one fails.

If the factory installed block heater can’t keep up with the frigid weather, then installing a 1,800 watt in-line coolant heater will help better.

 

Terrible.

Someone forgot to plug our yard loader in after using it.

I needed it, tried to start it.

Just white smoke during cranking.

I pulled the air filters, plugged in a battery charger and used the heat gun in the filter housing.



Got the loader running.

 

I think I'll try your system this weekend.
It looks easier than tarping my truck.
Last summer I swore I would never tarp again. Not exactly what I meant, but!!!

I don't want to try to change the block heater until I have a few warmer days off.
Last time the block heater cord shorted out. I was going to also change the heater. The first bolt I tried to turn out. Broke off. So now the project has to be finished.

My open air garage, (as seen in the picture) needs more heat

 

I've done some pretty sketchy stuff to get equipment going in the field. Stuff I won't share on an open forum because someone without experience or common sense might read it and try it lol.

 

Hmmm my truck starts after sitting in -35 deg weather without plugging in. Clean connections and a volt drop test of cables and load test batteries. Check amp draw of starter and also charging system.
Be sure you buy treated fuel or treat fuel then fill up. Let engine run 10-15 min to circulate treated fuel. Modern diesels will start in sub zero temps if properly prepped. Also don’t neglect you air system.